Police have continued to question a mother of seven over the stabbing deaths of her seven children and a niece, as the Cairns community continued to grapple with the enormity of the mass killing.
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Mersane Warria, also known as Raina Thaiday, remained under police guard in Cairns Hospital on Saturday.
As of 2pm on Saturday she was under arrest but no charges had been laid.
She had been taken to hospital from her Murray Street address in the west Cairns suburb of Manoora.
Acting Premier Tim Nicholls visited a community centre on Murray Street on Saturday and, along with senior police officers and local politicians, laid flowers at the makeshift memorial in the park adjacent to the home.
Barely 24 hours earlier police had made the grisly discovery in that home.
Mr Nicholls said the state government would provide whatever help it could to the community.
"As a father myself, with three children under 15, I can only imagine the grief that this community is feeling as they come to grips with the events over the past days," he said.
"I'm sure I speak on behalf of all Queenslanders and all Australians when we say we are with you, we are here to support you and we feel with you the grief the community feels."
Mr Nicholls said he briefed Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the situation late on Saturday morning, Queensland time.
"He also reiterated his support for the community and his sorrow at the events that have occurred here over the last 24 hours or so," he said.
Mr Nicholls said he had been briefed by the Department of Community Services about its response but would not entertain speculation Ms Warria had been threatened with the removal of her children.
"At this stage it's appropriate that we allow the police to gather their information as part of their investigation and allow them to do that before we comment more readily on that," he said.
Community advocate Yodie Batzke, who had been liaising with the Indigenous and South Sea Islander communities in the wake of the tragedy, urged young community members in particular to be mindful of cultural protocols.
It is understood some younger community members had been using social media to spread information about the deaths and, in doing so, broke cultural protocol by naming and showing images of the dead.
"We've been receiving phone calls from family in Brisbane and from our networks in Rockhampton and we just want to put a message out there to our family and friends," she said.
"If they could just respect the cultural protocols in this grieving time and if we could just hold back on some of the comments and photos on social media to allow our community to grieve."
Mr Nicholls said the killings demonstrated the challenges faced in some Queensland communities.
"We have here a terrible tragedy and the reasons are yet to be explained," he said.
"Like everyone in the community, the government wants to know those reasons and the best way we can do that is allow the police to conduct their investigation.
"We also then have the issues around disadvantage in the community and that's something the government has taken on board for some considerable time now."
Mr Nicholls cited the Queensland Police Service's Cairns Safer Streets Taskforce as an example.